Film Reviews by TB

When Guy Ritchie first cast Jason Statham in Lock Stock, he probably had no idea the fruitful partnership they would have, as well as the incredible career Statham would go on to enjoy. Now, 16 years after they worked together, they are back. The last film they made, Revolver, was an absolute car crash & received excoriating reviews. I myself could only get through about 25 minutes of it, it was that bad. Unfortunately, their new collaboration is equally as rubbish, albeit in a different way.

Wrath of Man is terrible, filled with characters you don't care about, given minimal backstory & thrust into the film. Statham plays a man called H, who joins a cash security transporting company and pretty quickly shows that he has unbelievable self-defence & weapon skills. The film then jumps back & forward in time, showing who H is & why he is where he is. But you just don't care, about any of it, at all. The motivations don't work, the story is ludicrous & you sit watching a bunch of characters you don't care about say terrible & bland dialogue to each other.

Then, for some inexplicable reason (although the movie is so terrible, it didn't really matter,) the film then goes completely left-field & spends most of the middle section with a totally different set of characters who have no introduction & again add nothing to the story. I was sat there just thinking "Why is this happening, why should I care about these people and how much longer until something interesting happens?"

But the biggest problem by a country mile is the tone & direction of the film, which is completely off. The reason that nothing works is because nothing rings true. You just watch basically a set of sequences, one after another, which are only tangentially connected by certain events which themselves don't click. Forget the old Guy Ritchie films like Snatch; this film has no humour, pacing or likeable people to root for.

When the final act arrives, I was just simply waiting for the film to end. You would think with the build-up to the big shootout, there would be something enjoyable, but it was just lots of shooting & deaths of characters I didn't care about. I had long given up expecting anything interesting. There was no payoff, no big reveal. It just ended & I wondered how this film got greenlit or who enjoyed watching it. A total & complete misfire.

When Gravity was released, it was a 5-star reviewed film across the board. Whether it was acting, story or visuals, the praise couldn't come fast or thick enough. My main interest for going to see it though was because of Alfonso Cuarón, whose film Y tu mamá también was an excellent & intimate road movie featuring incredible performances from its cast. So I thought that firstly giving a talented director a massive budget to play with, then the reviews being uniformly great, meant this was a winning combination. How wrong I was.

I fully accept in many many films, there are a number of clichés & story plot lines which are always there. However, the brilliance of the best films is to take these elements & make it so that they don't annoy you and to craft the story around them in an engrossing way. But in Gravity, these clichés are like open sores, dragging the film down and very quickly becoming so grating that the whole film is ruined.

Gravity is the story of Ryan Stone, who is on her first space walk (cliché) and is the most promising recruit they've had in years (another one.) She is joining up with Matt Kowalski who is, yes you've guessed it, on his final mission before retiring. Then suddenly they receive an emergency communication from Houston: those pesky Russians have shot down one of their own satellites but the debris has exploded through space and now everyone is in mortal danger. Then suddenly, these pieces of satellite fly through where Stone and Kowalski are, setting off a chain of events where they have to fight for their lives.

This "action sequence," consisting of the two of them being thrown around space & crashing into various satellites and rockets, just goes on and on and on and on. After about 20 minutes, you have gone from initially gripped, to blasé, to bored and finally arrive at annoyed. It is like watching two Teletubbies bouncing off each other in a padded room. And the more the film strains to make you care, the less you do. Clooney does his standard Clooney act, which whilst it works well in many other films, here is just banal. And Bullock, whilst she resists the temptation to shriek and scream, is just annoying. As much as she is the protagonist, I wasn't for one second interested in hers or the other's plight. And this is a film which you'd expect Bullock to carry with ease.

But it cannot be overstated just how stupid this film is. My best friend watching this with me, when we got to a cliffhanger scene which the film had spent the past hour building up to, just groaned when it happened and said "That just wouldn't happen..."

However, the moment when I finally lost patience with this film was a scene where Stone gets into a Russian space craft. Now, as much as I am not an astronaut, I would be willing to bet a very large amount of money that Russian & American shuttles are not identical in terms of their cockpits or controls/positions of their controls. Yet Stone gets inside, straps herself in, looks at the panel which is full of buttons labelled in Russian and without skipping a beat, starts up the shuttle & flies it with no issues. And at that moment, for me my viewing was over. I did leave the film on until the end, but didn't watch it as such, just waited for it to be over.

I absolutely appreciate & respect the level of technical wizardry, CGI & world building in this film, but unless there is a good movie to tie it to, it amounts to nothing. Gravity is a very expensive, flashy, dire & boring mess. And it's 2 hours of my life I'm not going to get back. Please don't waste yours.

This film has huge personal significance for me. I also have, although nowhere near as bad, a stammer/stutter. As much as it caused me enormous frustration when I was younger, I have through a combination of hard work & practice managed to make it barely noticeable. But to have a debilitating speech impediment and also to have to become King is a challenge that I can only slightly understand. One of the biggest things I also love about this film is that it in no way shows or pretends there is a simple cure for a stammer. It is a far more nuanced situation which the film shows brilliantly.

The story follows Bertie, later crowned King George who, following the abdication of his brother, is promoted to the throne. But George's terrible stammer is a complete obstacle, making even saying a single sentence almost impossible. After trying multiple therapies, George is put in touch with Lionel Logue, a completely unconventional Australian speech coach. From there, George is slowly able to manage his stammer, working closely with Logue as well as forming a close friendship.

Colin Firth is brilliant in this role and fully deserved his Oscar win. He makes George an emphatically relatable person, stripping back the pomp to show a man who desperately wants to serve his country but is stopped by something he has almost no control over. It is wonderful & also highly emotional to see his confidence grow as he manages his stutter. And Geoffrey Rush as Logue is the perfect performance partner: acerbic, witty, brilliant & above all deeply caring to George. The other brilliant role is played by Helena Bonham Carter. In so many films she plays extremely unconventional roles, but she displays her beautiful dramatic range & emotions as the loyal Queen who stands strong and supports her husband through his various trials with dedication & love.

Direction wise, the film is taut, well paced and perfectly written by David Seidler. There are some unintentionally funny moments, including when George is made to swear repeatedly, and amusingly is now a popular remix on the internet.

Although for some it may be very slow going or not relevant, for me it is an intensely personal account of the overcoming of difficulty at a time when his country and people needed him most.

A brilliant film.

The first in the Has Fallen franchise, this came in the same year as White House Down, although they are in many ways very different films. The main one being that whilst White House Down was a 12A rated family friendly action film, this is a no-holds barred at times extremely violent 15 rated adult film. But it is also extremely enjoyable & a proper old-style action thriller.

The story is fairly standard fare: Gerard Butler plays Mike Banning, an ex-special forces soldier who is on the President's security team. After a tragedy at work, he steps back & works for a different department, but still "conveniently" has kept up all his skills whilst sat behind a desk. Then, when the government of South Korea arrives on a state visit, the North Koreans stage a coup to try & capture them. And there is only one person who can stop them...

As much as it is schlocky, these are the types of films that Butler does extremely well. He is an absolute unit in this film, built like you wouldn't believe, but also with a vulnerability that is quite an interesting facet of the character. Exactly what you'd expect to happen happens, but this film wears it's clichés with pride. There are action scenes, crossing and double-crossing and the stand-off at the end.

One point about this film which normally would be a negative for me, but which the film leads into in such a charming way it actually benefits it is the at times staggeringly bad effects and CGI. Parts of this film you'd shocked were greenlit to be put in, when looking at it. But this is very much in the spirit of the film & the adventure.

Butler and the others do solid if uninspiring work, however by the end of the film, if you allow yourself to buy into the spirit of it, you'll have a stupid grin plastered across your face. The sequels are a mixed bag, however much of the same spirit remains.

A great Friday night film which you can enjoy if you don't think too closely about it.

This film is both interesting and frustrating. It really leans into its sci-fi premise with flair and also visual flourishes, however it also has a relatively poor script & uninteresting characters. The abilities of Lucy herself are also so stupid that the film becomes quite stupid, mainly because the film insists on maintaining the fact that this is set in the real world, as well as being far too long.

And yet, in a weird way it was enjoyable. This film, despite its liberties, does keep you gripped. Johansson plays the titular Lucy, who is kidnapped & surgically implanted with a highly complex & dangerous new synthetic drug. The packages leak & Lucy then gets superhuman and highly advanced powers, enabling her to fight back against the drug runners trying to kill her.

I won't go too much into the plot, suffice to say that there are many far-fetched and ridiculous events that happen. Some of them work well, like the incredible car chase through Paris which is bread and butter Besson, whilst a lot of the other stuff, particularly the superhuman abilities and their use, just don't work.

However, I absolutely admit that it kept me entertained for a good chunk of it, plus there were some ideas which did make me think. One surprise for me though was how much this film was embraced by people all over the world. The film was stratospherically successful at the box office, making over 11 times its budget, which I welcome because with all the rubbish being pumped out by studios, it is wonderful to see a new film concept genuinely taking chances and trying new ideas. Even if they don't all work, at least there is an effort to break the mould.

In Christian Bale's words, after completing production on Batman Begins, he was completely burnt-out, so wanted to do something small-scale... He then signed up to play a returning veteran with PTSD, who goes back onto the streets & gets mixed up with the gangs and violence he left behind all those years ago. It is an environment David Ayer (the writer/director) knew well: the entire film is a semi-autobiographical story, as well as featuring many composite characters based on people he knew & grew up with.

Bale plays Jim, who returns from combat haunted by horrific & disturbing visions as a result of the significant trauma he endures whilst serving in the US military. He links back up with his best childhood friend Mike and they resume their favourite pastime of hanging out on the streets, getting drunk & high, whilst also becoming involved with petty crime. As much as Jim wants to get his life together & bring his Mexican girlfriend over the border to live with him, his significant mental health issues plague him constantly.

I don't want to say too much more about the story, as it is a film where the less you know, the more you get out of it. But it is absolutely incredible. Bale is magnetic, although for me I also feel that his absolute authenticity at being able to show extreme mental anguish may in part have been because of the terrible experiences & difficulties he had as a young man dealing with the fallout of the success of Empire of the Sun. Also, much credit must be given to Freddy Rodriguez as Mike. Starring opposite a powerhouse like Bale would be daunting for any actor, but he really comes into his own and gives a completely authentic & natural performance as the good man who is led astray by his friend.

Impressively as well, despite the micro-budget (it has been reported that there was so little money that no catering was provided,) is that nothing feels short-changed or fake. The crew shot on the actual streets and used real people who lived there to add layers of authenticity to the film. There is also unbelievably tight editing & pacing, adding to the frenetic pace. The only thing that stops this getting 5 stars is that for me there were a couple of scenes within the narrative that just didn't fit within the story. I also felt that, at close to 2 hours, the film could have used some slight trimming down, especially with some of the middle act scenes.

But these are minor gripes. I still absolutely loved and was gripped by this film. I always have huge reverence for these tiny films which have to fight tooth and nail to get made & distributed, plus will often star actors who take a big risk by signing on to these small films with no guarantee of success. And massive credit needs to be given to Bale to lending his star power & credibility to this story. Another reminder again why he is such a magnificent & wonderful actor.

In 2020, Christopher Nolan released Tenet. It was the culmination of many years of slowly pushing towards the point where he basically went up his own backside with pretension, wrapped up in a film so convoluted & cold that it made me question some of the reasons I liked Nolan's work in the first place. As much as there is an unrelenting coldness in pretty much everything he does, this has before been offset by his excellent work. So I did go into Oppenheimer wanting it to be great but also keeping my optimism to a minimum so as I wasn't set up for another failure. I am delighted, as per my star rating, to say that Nolan is back to his amazing best with what is his best film since Interstellar, although in some ways it's even better than that, because this film really nails the ending.

Oppenheimer chronicles the creation of the atomic bomb, overseen by Oppenheimer along with the contributions of many others in the scientific community. It is the height of WWII and there is increasing desparation from the West and the US to ensure that the technology does not fall into the hands of their enemies. The film also looks closely at Oppenheimer's personal life, including his Communist sympathies & his affair with one of the principal members of the Communist party, Jean Tatlock. Mixed in with this is the sham trial that the film repeatedly cuts back to, trying to discredit Oppenheimer when he realises the horror & evil that the creation he helped to birth can do.

The most important thing this movie does is make you feel, through the incredible crafting of cinematography, sound & performances, how tense & pressured the whole team working on the Manhattan Project was. There is the constant pressure from the official chain of communication, primarily led by Matt Damon's Leslie Groves, to bring forward the time when the bomb will be ready. This firehose is then turned on Oppenheimer as he changes from a man of science, committed to completing the project he was given, to one of the most outspoken proponents of controlling these weapons, as he could see what was going to happen once the arms race started.

The cinematography is stunning. I saw this in 70mm IMAX & there is simply no way I can communicate effectively how all-encompassing it was to be a part of this movie. The sound design is some of the most incredible I've ever experienced, and this film features the most use of IMAX in a Nolan film so far. Frustratingly, due to the noise IMAX cameras make, dialogue scenes have to be shot on conventional film cameras. But also, every time I see a Nolan film, I appreciate why he is such a fanatical defender of & proponent of film stock: the quality, colour palette & depth of field is unmatched.

And finally we get to the performances. In his first lead for Nolan after multiple supporting roles, Cillian Murphy is magnificent. His Oppenheimer is in many ways an almost childlike character, full of nerves & insecurities, but always driven by what he emphatically believes. Florence Pugh also does excellent work with what is effectively a small supporting role. But in all the roles, the one that stood out more than most was Josh Hartnett. He is really really good. After multiple rom-coms, followed by a long hiatus, he is outstanding as Oppenheimer's colleague Ernest Lawrence. Even though I won't spoil it, there are many amazing cameos as well.

This film is sensational. I loved it and it is also an important warning to civilisation now, right now. Especially after Russia's invasion of Ukraine, we need to as a species start to seriously see the risks we are taking not only with our lives but the whole of humanity & the planet. Sadly, like Oppenheimer muses late on in the film, this isn't one we probably will take...

In 2016, the world changed forever. Donald Trump, a man who had led one of the most excoriating & divisive political campaigns in US political history, won the US election by a narrow margin. Millions were horrified at how anyone could vote for this man. And also anyone who did vote for him was, in those people's eyes, tainted forever, irredeemable & beyond contempt. But, as has been incessantly pointed out by people including Michael Moore & Bill Maher, the half of the country who did vote for him are not self-deporting. Everyone has to live together and the time of agreeing to disagree needs to make a comeback. Sitting in your own echo chamber does absolutely nothing apart from deepen these divides.

And this is the brilliance to me of Moore's new documentary Fahrenheit 11/9. Rather than adopt the approach of every single other media outlet/commentator, Moore has gone in completely the opposite & also correct direction: finding out WHY so many who voted for Obama had reached a point where they could no longer tolerate the way things were going. It also has to be said that Moore was one of the ONLY people in the media who saw the momentum of the Trump campaign, coupled with understanding why people were as angry as they were. To them in his words, "Trump was a Molotov cocktail thrown into the US political system."

This documentary makes for uncomfortable viewing, mainly because it also pulls no punches looking at the behaviour of the Democrats, especially in Moore's hometown of Flint, Michigan. The treatment of them with the contaminated water scandal, alongside the unannounced military war-gaming drills, just pushed the decent people living there over the edge. Moore speaks to many people of different political stripes, making this a truly inclusive & wide ranging documentary. I loved this element of it, because the USA needs to listen to the people who are most affected by how the country is governed. And the simple truth is that if the vast majority of them feel they aren't being listened to, they will keep voting for the most extreme candidates they can, in order to make their voice heard, irrelevant of who it is.

A brilliant and absolutely thought-provoking documentary

Thank God for Gurinder Chadha. I first encountered her work with the brilliant Bend it like Beckham, looking at what happens when a passionate & determined young woman who loves football goes against her family wishes and actually does what she wants to do, living her life. Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging was another great film, taking a coming of age story and adding new dimensions to it. And now we have Blinded by the Light, which takes everything Chadha gave us in her previous films and crafts it into a work of genius.

To be honest, this film wasn't even on my radar. Then a good friend of mine who had seen it told me about it and literally could not stop praising or raving about it, saying I absolutely had to see it. Within 5 minutes of putting it on, I had a massive smile on my face and now, whenever I talk about it, I say exactly the same things.

I love this film. It takes one of the most difficult & challenging things to show (racism) and creates a film that not for one second minimises it's impact, but also shows the huge hope & promise within the communities. And in the film's best stroke, it sets all this to the wonderful & brilliant music of Bruce Springsteen.

Javed is a young British Pakistani living in Luton during the Thatcher years. Racism is everywhere & Javed is constantly threatened & chased, simply for his colour. Family life isn't that much better, with Javed's father being an extremely difficult & controlling man who rules his family with an iron-fist. When Javed starts at college, he becomes friends with the only other black student, Roops, who is also a massive fan of Bruce Springsteen. Once Javed hears his music, he will never be the same again.

The music fits perfectly with the difficulties and horrors of Javed's life, but it also is an unbelievably hopeful film. Despite the difficulties he and his family faces, the music helps him through, which is the impact it had on Sarfraz Manzoor, on whose life the film is based. From brilliant montages showing his initial emotions when he first hears "The Boss" to a horrific scene of racist violence, the music is integral to every part of it.

I couldn't help but be moved by what I saw and how it was acted and directed. This film is a masterpiece and I loved it. It left me feeling not only uplifted but also shocked by the difficulties which everyone within that community faced, but crucially this was never done in a lecturing or condescending way.

Gurinder Chadha, you are incredible and we are so lucky to have you as a filmmaker. Thank you for making this works of perfection.

Blade Runner has become the stuff of such legend that it was surprising that I had never seen it until recently, despite my love of Ridley Scott and his work.

Harrison Ford plays a man called Rick Deckard, a human and Blade Runner, who is in charge of patrolling Los Angeles, looking for replicants and terminating them. He then is informed of 4 such beings who he needs to hunt down and "retire" from this world.

The film itself, whilst it is an engrossing & visually incredible film, is also extremely monotonous at times. It is a very cold film, which I absolutely appreciate is the point. But at times it does make the narrative and the watching quite impenetrable.

Harrison Ford is great as Deckard, plus Daryl Hannah also makes a strong impression, alongside Rutgar Hauer.

I do have to mention that I am not a massive sci-fi fan, so in many ways a lot of the content will be lost on me. But there was certainly a lot to enjoy and I also appreciate the huge influence it had on many other films following it.

This is the first Robert Eggers film I've watched, but I have heard many things about his previous films, in particular the Lighthouse, which is on my watchlist. Eggers's films are full of incredible imagery, dark malevolent themes & supernatural horror. And the Northman is an incredible concoction of all of the above, filled with amazing performances.

Set hundreds of years ago, it is based on the legend of Amleth who, as a young boy, witnesses the brutal slaying of his father by his uncle Fjölnir, only just escapes & then swears revenge. We then fast-forward to Amleth as a grown man & then watch as he slowly gets closer to Fjölnir to exact his revenge.

The best way I can describe this film is totally, completely and utterly crazy, but in the best possible way. It is an extremely violent (the attack on the village is at times wince-inducingly shocking, though incredibly filmed,) but totally seriously acted film. In many ways, it almost fairy tale-like in its morality and the paths that the various characters have to walk down.

Every actor is great, but for me the stand-out was Nicole Kidman. In a film which is full of testosterone and manliness, she absolutely cuts through all of it with an electric & visceral performance. Every moment she was on screen crackled with danger & shock.

There are also many stunning images, particularly at night when Amleth is hunting, slowly taking out everyone who stands between him and Fjölnir. The ending is also excellent as well, a welcome relief after a film which does so many things right.

I look forward to watching more of Eggers's work and absolutely can see his amazing ability to put together films which really leap out of the screen, demand your attention and absolutely push back against the turgid & incessantly repetitive schlock that Hollywood seems to churn out today.

Before Taken, Liam Neeson was an actor who was known for many film roles, whether it was a Jedi, a sex therapist, a union leader or a rescuer of hundreds of Jews who would have been slaughtered by the Nazi death machine. Then Luc Besson & Pierre Morel came calling, offering him the lead in their new action film. And the rest, as they say, is history...

Bryan Mills is a single dad who is filled with not only a profound guilt about the breakdown of his family unit but also a fear that his daughter will one day be harmed by some of the people that Mills deals with in his line of work. That line of work is espionage, security and a previous life as part of an elite military unit. However, these days he lives alone in a small house & spends his days obsessing over which karaoke machine to buy his daughter for her birthday. When she then asks to be allowed to follow a band over Europe, despite his better judgement, he agrees. Obviously, the proverbial then hits the fan and Mills has to race against time to track down his daughter.

The best thing about Taken is quite simply that it is an unbelievably tightly made action thriller. Although there are a couple of sequences that go on a little too long & a few things that don't hold up to scrutiny, as a whole it is an incredibly well-made & genuinely gripping film. Neeson himself is incredible with how he handles the action scenes, bearing in mind he was in his late 50's when he shot it. The script is simple, direct & tells it's story well.

For me, even though I give it 4 stars and do enjoy it, there is one quite big problem with it which almost no-one else apart from a couple of professional reviewer's have commented on: there is an unbelievable whiff of racism throughout the whole film, mixed in with irony. Anyone who isn't American is a baddie, and Mills will lecture them about American values even though he has a thick Irish accent... The irony is off the charts here, but it does at times come across as quite unpleasant. The one review I remember picking up on this said: "It's basically a film where a group of dirty Albanian b*******s kidnap an American girl then traffic her through France overseen by dirty French b*******s then sell her to dirty Arab b*******s." As much as it is a crude view, it doesn't mean there isn't a lot of truth in it.

However, on its own merits as a film, it's an enjoyable & thrilling romp and perfect Friday night viewing when you want to have a laugh & not take it too seriously.

Call Me By Your Name (CMBYN) is stunning. It is a deeply personal love letter to anyone who has ever wrestled with love, irrelevant of your sexuality, although of course for people who are LGBTQ+, it will have deeper resonance.

Set in Italy in the 80’s, it is about a teenage boy called Elio who lives with his parents in a perfect paradise: massive house, beautiful locations, live-in chef & supportive parents. Every year, his father, who is a professor, takes in a student who stays with them over the summer to study. This year, it is an extremely handsome & engaging man called Oliver, who Elio starts to fall madly in love with. The film then looks at their burgeoning love affair, all the while ticking down to when the summer is over & Oliver has to leave to go back home. Along with the way, there are also girlfriends, disagreements as well as profound bonding & heartbreaking first love.

For me, it is in many ways amazing, although despite the 5 stars, there are some issues I personally have. The main one amusingly is Timothée Chalamet. I say amusingly, because all I seem to hear from the many reviewers & people who watched it was how incredible his performance was. Don’t get me wrong, he was good, but I also never liked Elio or the way he played him that much. It is clear that Chalamet is channelling James Dean with every fibre of his being, as well as every other precocious performance that has been done. And the problem with precocious characters is that they almost always come off badly, hence the difficulty there is in playing them. Chalamet does his best, but to me the star of the film by a country mile is Armie Hammer. 

Oliver, as the handsome & muscular American student, is also a very difficult role to play. It would be so easy just to coast through & allow your looks and charm to do the heavy lifting. But honestly, this is Hammer’s best role & also the best performance in the film, in a movie filled with them. Oliver is so much more than the sultry heartthrob, especially as he himself starts to realise the feelings he has for Elio. He is also very well written as a character who you never really know in some ways, but this is also shown in his internal struggles. The other incredible performance was from Michael Stuhlbarg as Samuel, Elio’s father & the only one who sees the love between Elio & Oliver. 

But for me, the other reason this film gets 5 stars is because of how is looks. It is like being in the most beautiful dream you could imagine. Colours pop out, whether it is the bright orange juice or egg yolks at breakfast, through to the beautiful crackling fires in the corner of the room. The water is also shot perfectly as well, such as a sequence when the characters go out & watch ancient statues being recovered from the ocean floor. The sound & locations are also flawless, transporting us to this little piece of heaven when we all wished we had been able to grow up in. 

As the film progresses, we get the chance to, in one of my favourite sequences, leave the family & house in the country and just spend time with the two leads, watching the further character development as they take a holiday & make memories. A sequence running up a hill towards a waterfall is a particularly incredible moment cinematography wise. 

Then, as it must, it ends with the two having to say goodbye, turning the film into a mourning of loss & grief. The speech by Samuel is so beautiful in terms of how it deals with the revelation that he had about the intimacy that his son shared with Oliver, stripping back everything to just seeing the pure love at its heart. 

Finally & again something that many people will react angrily to: I emphatically do not want a sequel to this film. This is a one-off, a piece of perfection that cannot & should not be revisited. Leave well alone & be grateful that we had the opportunity for all these talented people to come together & create this piece of beauty. 

This series is amazing. The cast, some of whom are well-known, others in their first roles, are perfect. The scenes are masterfully set & directed. The emotion & pain on the screen sears into your very being and stays there, haunting you. This is some of the best TV I have ever watched. It is also meticulously researched and welcomingly has been made with the full cooperation of the Jones family, who at the end are featured in a short section where they talk along with the detectives who finally brought Rhys’s killers to justice. 

The series looks at the murder of Rhys Jones, who was a football mad little boy living in Liverpool with his family. One day after finishing football practice, he is walking back across the car park next to the training ground when he is caught in the crossfire of a gang feud. In no way is he involved & as the series progresses, it is slowly revealed just how heinous this crime was (literally a gang member who spots rivals across the park, pulls out a gun and shoots indiscriminately at them, with countless innocent bystanders in between him and them/in the car park.) 

One of the best parts about this series is how it starts. Even though as the viewer you will probably know even the bare bones of the story, it still starts as a completely normal, painfully painfully ordinary day. And the series just leaves you on the edge, waiting the moment when all hell breaks loose. The scenes in the hospital, as Rhys slips away, are so difficult to watch, I feel myself getting tears in my eyes just thinking back to the scene. That is the level of power this programme has.

From then on, the series barely lets up, even in the quiet moments. The main protagonist, for lack of a better word, is Stephen Graham’s Dave Kelly, the lead investigator who becomes absolutely dogged in his determination to bring not only the killer but also the people who aided & abetted him to try and avoid the law. Graham, who is himself from Liverpool and grew up 10 minutes away from where the murder happened, is absolutely incredible. Massive praise must also be given to the actors playing Rhys’s parents. Everyone is at the top of their game. 

Over the course of 4 episodes, you are simply blown away by what you see. And it is so emotional at times it is almost unbearable. One of the things which most affected me was the revelation that, after the killer had fired the first two shots and one had hit Rhys, which he would have been in full view of/been able to see, he then continues to fire. That level of evil is something which can never be reckoned with. 

This is extremely challenging viewing, but also essential. It is vital not only to understand the the case but also the fact that the killer & his accomplices almost got away with murder. I loved every minute, despite the fact it, at the time and still now, haunted me.

Essential viewing.

When you are living in the Trump era and one of the greatest living filmmakers teams up with two of the greatest actors to make a film about the Pentagon Papers, you feel that it is going to be a amazing film. Then when the 4 & 5 star reviews come in, this is pretty much confirmed to you. But like a lot of films before it, the actual movie doesn’t in any way live up to the hype. 

The best way I can describe this movie is it is what I think would have been the result if Spielberg had watched Spotlight then thought “I want to make my own version of that film!” Like Spotlight, large amounts of time are spent either in a newsroom or in huddles discussing classified documents in tense voices. There is the usual pressure from editors from above and the fears that the story will be leaked or not be allowed to run.

But the problem I have is quite simply this: it is so boring. I didn’t care what happened, how it happened or who it involved. This is a film which might have been dealing with an important piece of history, but for me I simply couldn’t care less. Obviously being a Spielberg film it is extremely well made from a technical standpoint, hence the 2 stars, but nothing else in it caught fire for me. I also recollect extremely sanctimonious interviews with Hanks & Streep when they were promoting it, comparing it to the multiple controversies with the Trump presidency, whilst in no way exploring why massive numbers of people across the USA would feel so disenfranchised & angry that they would consider voting for him…

Despite its good intentions, not a film I can recommend.